KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 — Despite the Covid-19 pandemic’s many setbacks, you can still lace up your running shoes and participate in the Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon, as organisers have announced it will take the form of a free virtual marathon this year.

The Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon 2020 Virtual Run (KLSCM 2020 VR) is slated for December 5 and 6, and will adopt the use of a dedicated smartphone app to track racers’ performance.

"Some of the key features of the app include a GPS-based activity tracker (with map display, distance, time and pace), individual and team leaderboard rankings, augmented reality face filter as well as the sharing of your activity to the Event feed, just to name a few,” said marathon management in a statement.

The undated statement, shared on the www.kl-marathon.com website, said the "Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon Virtual Run App” will be made available for free on Apple’s App store and Google Play Store.

Announcements of the VR run were made as early as November 6 on the KLSCM Facebook page, and checks on the Google Play Store show that an app by the name KLSCM 2019 is already accessible.

There will be four distances available during the marathon, which are a Full Marathon, Half Marathon, 10km and 5km runs. Participants can decide to run as an individual or in a team of three, on either of the two days.

The annual marathon, one of Malaysia’s leading marathons in terms of participant turnout, was cancelled on April 7, due to social distancing requirements arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.